Five Creative Ways to Spend Your FSA Funds Before the End of the Year

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Credit: Images courtesy of the FSA store. If you have a flexible spending account (FSA), you know the drill: Use the funds before the end of the year, or lose them. Unfortunately, chances are slim you can pack the rest of the year with doctor's appointments. Does that mean your hard-earned funds go to waste? Definitely not. You can spend your remaining FSA funds on other qualifying healthcare costs. And what counts as "qualifying" might surprise you—for instance, you can use your FSA or HSA funds to get yourself a sweet new fitness tracker or smartwatch.As the end of the year approaches, here are all the ways you can spend any leftover money in your FSA balance. Use your FSA dollars to stock up on over-the-counter itemsMany over-the-counter medications and health items are FSA-eligible, including pain relievers, cold medicine, bandages, dental care products, menstrual products, and more. Scan your medicine cabinet and make a list of anything you need to stock up on. Spend your FSA on a smartwatchFSA/HSA eligibility for smartwatches and other fitness wearables is real, but the main “catch" (as I’ve previously explained) is proving the device is in fact necessary, which requires you to obtain a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN).Screenless recovery trackers like Whoop, Amazfit Helio Strap, and the Oura Ring can usually be justified as HSA/FSA eligible around sleep quality, HRV-based stress monitoring, or recovery tracking tied to a chronic condition. Similarly, smartwatches can qualify the same way a basic tracker does, as long as you can link a relevant documented health concern. For instance, Coros offers FSA/HSA eligibility for all its watches and heart rate monitors through its partnership with Truemed. Amazfit similarly lets you filter by HSA/FSA eligibility for its smartwatches.Upgrade your medicine cabinet with surprisingly eligible itemsIf you want to get creative with it, the official FSA store lets you filter by "surprisingly eligible." Similar to the section above, for some of these items, you'll want to brush up on how exactly to get an LMN to justify certain tech as FSA-eligible for you personally. In the meantime, go crazy and snag yourself Epsom salt for $8.99, Supergoop! sunscreen for $38.00, or perhaps a snazzy massage gun for $349.99. What do you think so far? Get ahead of your chronic conditionsKnee braces, wrist splints, compression socks, and other orthopedic items can help relieve chronic pain issues. Rather than wait for these issues to rear their heads down the line, use FSA money to offset the costs of these fixes now. If you use eyeglasses or contacts, consider using your FSA dollars to update or refresh your prescriptions. Don't forget to stock up on eye drops and lens solution, too. Pre-pay for planned proceduresIf you have medical procedures scheduled for early next year, many healthcare providers will allow you to pre-pay the estimated costs this calendar year using FSA funds. This includes dental work, physical therapy, chiropractic visits, Lasik eye surgery, and more.The bottom lineHowever you choose to spend your FSA funds, don’t let that money go to waste. After all, it came out of your paycheck. Check in with your employer’s rules for any balance remaining on Dec. 31 this year, so you aren’t left forfeiting your hard-earned funds. You can find a complete list at the FSA store here.